Festival season for narrowboat traders is finally getting in full swing – starting this weekend. While many of our colleagues are at Norbury Canal Festival, we’re happily back in Droitwich for the third year in a row.

In previous years we’ve been thrilled to moor up comfortably close to Helen and Andy and their ‘Wild Side‘ boating business. So it’s with some sadness that we’ve taken ‘their’ spot this year. Helen’s had some health challenges recently, so their trading travels have been temporarily put on hold. We shall very much miss their company and conviviality over the weekend.

However we’re meeting many new traders plying their wares, and hoping to persuade passers-by of the merits of their products – not that they can in any way replace our dear friends. I’ll do my best to introduce you to some of them after the festival …

Meeting other floating traders

We were recently asked by the Canal and River Trust, and ‘The Humans on the Waterways‘ team, if we’d be up for featuring fellow traders on our blog. To date they’ve interviewed/published just two couples’ stories, at last year’s Birmingham Floating Market. It sparked a thought that it could be a cool idea to contact other traders and tell you their particular stories.

Let me know in the comments below, what questions you’d like answered about narrow boating trading businesses, and I’ll do my best to include them in any interviews I post.

Part of our story ‘came out’ last year – you can read it here. Today we’ve had an email from C&RT saying it’s one of the three most popular ones (*blush*), and a magazine would like to interview us and expand on our words. I’ll share how that progresses as and when it does …

How exciting! You’ll have guessed we’re not ones to hide our light under a bushel – having said that it’s something anyone running a business would be foolhardy not to embrace. Marketing is a crucial component of self-employment.

Awning Mark Two

I’m proud to announce that the ingenious kiwi brewer known as Barry Teutenberg has produced his latest invention in time for the weekend. Having experienced the drawback of the British weather for three years in a row, he’s realised that it’s essential to have some form of reliable cover for the products he’s promoting.

The last one unfortunately didn’t even make it to the festival ‘live’ having blown down the night before the action.

We’re quietly confident that this canopy will cope …

Watch out for news of its fate success after the weekend.

Have a marvellous May Day Bank Holiday weekend everyone in UK – surely the weather can only get warmer?